October New York Philharmonic Trip to Cuba Is Off

The New York Philharmonic scratched its trip to Cuba at the end of October because the United States Treasury Department said it would deny permission for a group of patrons to go along. Without them and their donations, the orchestra said on Thursday, it cannot afford to go.

About 150 board members and other donors had promised to pay $10,000 each to spend Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 in Havana, where the orchestra was to play two concerts, said Zarin Mehta, its president. The money was to have covered the cost of the proposed trip, which came at the Cuban government’s invitation.

Supporters, both individuals and executives of donor companies, usually tag along with major orchestras when they travel around the world. The travel amounts to high-class tourism along with a chance to make business connections in foreign capitals.

“The patrons were excited about giving us the money with the opportunity of going to see Havana and be a witness and support their orchestra,” said Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s president. “This is what’s important to them.” Mr. Mehta said he would not consider taking the patrons’ money while leaving them behind.

“I wouldn’t want to insult them,” he said. “I think it’s most likely they would say, ‘Go another time.’” That’s what the orchestra will try to do, Mr. Mehta said. He said he had hoped that pressure applied by New York elected officials, including Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representatives Steve Israel and Charles B. Rangel — who have supported the trip — would help to have the decision overturned.

“They haven’t been successful,” he said. “They’re befuddled.”

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issues licenses to visit Cuba because of the longstanding economic sanctions aimed at the government of Fidel Castro. The office told the orchestra that the players and staff members would be allowed to go, but not the patrons. It has already issued two licenses for orchestra officials who went on logistical missions.

Mr. Mehta said the orchestra had been told that the patrons would be excluded because they were not performers.

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, Marti Adams, said that the department would not comment on license applications for Cuba. The office said it issued 21 licenses last year under the performing-arts category.

The orchestra has delivered a legal brief to the licensing office making its case that the nonperforming donors should be allowed to go.

When the orchestra made headlines with a trip to Pyongyang, North Korea, nearly two years ago, a group of patrons needed no permission to go along. The orchestra leaves on Sunday for an Asian tour that will include another Communist nation, Vietnam.

Mr. Mehta said the next opening for a Cuba trip would probably come in June or July. The orchestra will try to come up with other concerts quickly to play at its Avery Fisher home at Lincoln Center when it would have been in Havana.

As for programming on those dates, Mr. Mehta said, Latin-American music is a distinct possibility. “The thought has crossed our minds,” he said.

I’d like to see a background article on the donors, who gave what, where does their $ come from, and if they are anticipating contributing to send the orchestra to any other other countries, say Haiti, Iran or North Korea.

OFAC has not noticed, or has not been reminded by the White House or State Department, that an election was held in November.

Last week our organization was denied a license to organize trips similar to those we sponsored during the Clinton and pre-2004 Bush Administrations. A few weeks before that the US Tour Operators Association was denied a license to research the potential for the US travel industry of ending restrictions.

It is past time for President Obama to use his authority to undo the Bush agenda and allow all non-tourist travel, not just for Cuban Americans.

Elkayef has a very valid point. What ever happened to Obama ending the embargo? Half a century later and it’s still a terrible idea!

A side note: I worked, illegally, in Cuba two summers ago. The Cuban people were excited that if Obama should win the primary, and the presidency, he would lift the embargo…Guess Obama’s rhetoric does not match his current record. Extremely disappointing.

The embargo not only harms the people, but also emboldens the Castro regime.

“Non-Cuban ancestry citizens of the United States are considered members of an inferior or dependent nationality and a non participant in the enjoyment of a right granted to others. Such inequality treats the broad majority of American citizens who are not of Cuban ancestry as second class citizens when it comes to the right to travel.”

It’s time we ended this unconstitutional invasion of free American’s lives and freedom of movement. Why we Americans continue to put up with anything like this approaching totalitarianism is beyond me.

Excuse me, but didn’t we have all kinds of restrictions when it came to the Republic of South Africa before the early 1990s? At least South Africans of all colors could demonstrate against their government, travel abroad freely and come back home, read whatever they wanted, freely form all kinds of associations, and go abroad to receive awards for resisting tyranny. When Cubans are able to do all of these things, then I think we should have contacts with Cuba. Until then, the Leftoids in this country who want to visit the People’s Paradise will simply have to suck it up.

Repeat after me: the embargo is not because the country is communist, the embargo was a response to pressure Castro to compensate US citizens and businesses for their assets expropriated by the Cuban government, another measure taken at the time was the freezing of Cuban accounts in US banks.

This sounds like an excuse. Everybody and their mother go to Cuba whenever they darned well please by using a third country, the Cuban government doesn’t even stamp US passports.

The Cuban government was looking solely to make money from this visit, and the U.S. Treasury did the right thing by preventing this money from making it to Cuba. The Cuban government can foot the bill if they really want to see the Philharmonic, but from day one this was just a money maker for the Castro brothers and their cronies. Why the Philharmonic agreed to go in the first place is beyond me. I am glad this whole trip has been canceled. This money is better spent here in the U.S. to keep U.S. citizens employed. I for one will not attend Philharmonic performances if they do the Cuba tour.

The dweebs in Washington should take some classes on international affairs, or global culture, or something. How can they be so clueless of the bad impression this gives of the US, and how lame of them not to care.

To Jason W, read the annual report, I am sure donors and gifts are listed there.

OFAC is clearly out of of touch with the rest of the administration and is enforcing the regulations with Bush 43 era precision instead of looking for ways to creatively interpret the existing regulations to create an atmosphere that will lead to productive and statesman like diplomatic contacts (Hillary, maybe you need to have a beer with Tim and let hm know what Obama is trying to do as clearly the head of licensing in OFAC is running their own show). What we do not need is two million tourists a year (with Billions of dollars) going to Cuba making it again the largest foreign destination for American tourists as it was before the revolution. What we DO need is the kind of cultural and artistic groups traveling to Cuba to show off the best of American culture and to establish relationships with leading Cuban intellectuals and opinion leaders – after all, despite his best efforts, Fidel will not live for ever.

Wait a minute! Did I get this right? I belong to a movie group that meets at Lincoln Ctr on some Sunday mornings and shows films that haven’t opened yet in the States. That little venture is hosting a trip to Cuba next month and I just got an email telling me there is one more place left for a single on that trip. I didn’t have to show any documents that said I was an important person, or a film criitic, or anything else…I didn’t have to have anything but a passport. And the donors of the Philharmonic cannot get there next month? What is wrong with this picture? I just go to the movies…these people send orchestras out as U.S. ambassadors. Is anyone paying attention here?